Theme - Legions of Dawn

The proud Dawnguard soldiers of House Nyarr represent one of the greatest assets in the Retribution of Scyrah’s arsenal. These oath-sworn warriors boast martial traditions stretching back millennia and make up the elite soldiery of the Retribution. Bearing the most advanced weapons and armor of their Great Military House, they are implacable warriors devoted to House Nyarr and through it the Retribution’s cause.

A nice, combined-arms theme for your Dawnguards - mainly for Sentinels, but all other models can greatly benefit from the extended deployment zone. The flanking theme bonus is also real nice, and with proper combination you can turn even a pillow-fisted light into a force of destruction. The easiest way to unlock the 40 pts threshold is to get 2 Sentinels+UA, gaining one of the attachment and a Scyir for free.

The Scyir is a linchpin model and you'll probably never consider this theme without him. It will give you movement flexibility with Tactician for your infantry (and cavalry), and so far he is the only model, which helps you triggering the Flank bonus for your warjacks.

Being such an important model, if you put an expensive warjack under his care, you'll just draw an even bigger bulls-eye on him. Stick to cheap myrmidons, like the Aspis, or the Griffon.

Dawnguard Sentinels - of all the Dawnguard units they have the longest melee range to trigger Flank. The 2" extra deployment also helps you with an alpha strike.

Arcanist_Mechanik - Concentrated power, along with the free focus from Empower on a marshalled warjack can be pure evil. If you stack Flank, Concentrated Power, Empower and either Hurry or Crush on lowly Griffon, you can have anything between a MAT8 P+S19+4D6 on the charge (plus an extra attack with one less die), or charging for free with MAT10 P+S17+4D6, and using up to 2 FOCUS to buy 2 extra P+S15 pseudo-weapon master attacks. All that from an 8-point jack, from a possibly free solo, and 6 pts of repair crew that you will take anyway.

Magister Helynna - Deceleration is all that takes to deliver your Sentinels or Destors to the enemy, and you can add an additional layer of protection with your feat.

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn - great movement boost with Crusader's Call, and another ARM boost. Her feat ensures you some protection from bad dice rolls.

Vyros1 and Vyros2 - yet 2 more casters with ARM booster, with great spells for their battelgroup too. The prime incarnation's feat extends the Flank bonus for your entire army, while the epic incarnation's veteran bonus will make your hits all the more deadlier (goes for the ones you deliver under Vengeance too).

You can gain the Flank bonus vs knocked down/stationary models (refer to the latest Errata).

Melee range is measured from your front arc so you cannot trigger Flank on models in your back arc.

The target enemy doesn't need to be in the Flanker's LOS, just their melee range.

Most of the time if something is in your melee range then it is so close it's in your LOS too, and the difference is meaningless.

But if you have 2" reach and you're jammed up in B2B with a bunch of closely-spaced enemies, you'll find your LOS is blocked. In this case, you might be able to trigger Flank on an enemy model that is "hiding" behind that front row of jammers, even though you don't have LOS to it.

Flank is not tied to a specific weapon, so Mount attacks and Power Attacks can benefit as well.

When you take a Partisan Mercenary, it counts as your Faction. However this doesn't increase the number of total mercenaries allowed. (Infernal Ruling)

Exception: If the Partisan Mercenary is explicitedly listed as one of the models you can take in the theme (such as Cephalyx in Cryx's Black Industries theme), then you can take the full FA plus your "up to one Merc" allotment. (Infernal Ruling)

Sometimes a specific Mercenary/Minion model/unit will gain a theme benefit of "If this model is included, it counts as a Faction model" (such as Greygore in Kriel Company). In this case, the model/unit might or might not count against your "up to one merc" limit:

If that Merc is in the list of models explicitly allowed (such as Savio in Storm Division), they won't count against your "up to one Merc" allowance.

If that Merc isn't in the list, (such as the Devil's Shadows in Slaughter Fleet Raiders), they will count against your "up to one Merc" allowance.

Partisans will count towards any relevant free points. For instance, Nyss will count twoards the "20 points of Retribution units" in the Defenders of Ios theme. (Infernal Ruling)

Partisans can be eligible to be taken as free choices. For instance, Erysis1 can be taken as a free solo in the Legion of Dawn theme. (Infernal Ruling)

Mercenaries and Ranking Officers

If you can include a Merc unit, and its attachments, then you can attach a Ranking Officer. This is true regardless of what the "Allowed models" are. (Infernal Ruling)

Una1 cannot be taken in this theme (yet) due to the conflict between the theme's "Only Construct warbeasts allowed" and Una1's "Must take warbeasts with flight". There are no construct warbeasts with flight (yet). But if/when there is, then Una1 can be taken in this theme. (Infernal Ruling)